1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus.
Priority is claimed on Japanese Patent Application No. 2010-079204, filed Mar. 30, 2010, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventional image forming apparatuses such as copiers, printers, fax machines, or multifunction printers which are provided with a plurality of the functions of these apparatuses have been proposed. In these image forming apparatuses, waste toner that has already been used is recovered by being conveyed to a waste toner recovery bottle. When this waste toner recovery bottle is full, the full waste toner recovery bottle is replaced with an empty waste toner recovery bottle.
A description will now be given of the waste toner recovery when the image forming apparatus is a full-color type of apparatus. Firstly, basic description of the image forming apparatus will be given. In this image formation apparatus, a plurality of photoconductors which are formed by drums that correspond respectively to the colors of yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan (C), and black (BK) are prepared. Predetermined electrostatic latent images are formed on the circumferential surface of each photoconductor using a laser scanning unit, and toner images of each color are created respectively using supplied toner of each color. The toner images of each color that are formed on the circumferential surface of each photoconductor are then sequentially superimposed and transferred in a transfer belt which is formed by a rotating endless belt. As a result, a color image is synthesized on the transfer belt. Next, the color image that has been synthesized on this transfer belt is transferred onto a transfer material such as copy paper or the like. After that, the color image is pressurized, heated and fixed. The toner remaining on the transfer belt after the toner image haps been transferred onto the transfer material is then removed by a cleaning apparatus. The transfer belt that has been cleaned by this cleaning apparatus is sent back to the respective photoconductors once again and is used for the synthesizing of the next color image.
The cleaning apparatus is provided on the downstream side of the position of the transfer onto the transfer material, and on the upstream side of the position of the first photoconductor in the rotation direction of the transfer belt. The cleaning apparatus is provided with a conveying mechanism and a waste toner recovery bottle. The conveying mechanism is provided with a cleaning blade that slides along in contact with the surface of the transfer belt, and with a screw or the like that conveys remaining toner that has been removed by the cleaning blade. The waste toner recovery bottle stores waste toners conveyed to it by the conveying mechanism.
The waste toner recovery bottle can be freely mounted on and removed from a main unit of the image forming apparatus. In addition, when a full-bottle sensor has detected that the waste toner recovery bottle is full of waste toner, a user is notified of this fact, and operations of the image forming apparatus are halted. The waste toner recovery bottle is then extracted from the main unit of the image forming apparatus. Next, an empty waste toner recovery bottle is newly set in the main unit of the image forming apparatus main unit, and operations of the image forming apparatus are recommenced.
However, if the above described full-bottle sensor uses the expansion of a flexible detection member that is provided on a portion of the waste toner recovery bottle to detect that the bottle is full, then if the waste toner recovery bottle is then extracted from the main unit while this detection member is still in its expanded state, there is a possibility that the expanded portion will come into contact with the main unit and become damaged. There is a possibility that the waste toner disperses inside the apparatus.